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"Fawlty Towers A Worshipper's Companion is quite a unique book... What the author has done is blend together various elements; fact and fiction, myth and analysis, to build an interesting and entertaining read." -- Unofficial Guide To Fawlty Towers (web site).
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Indispensable, exhaustive, intriguing and uproariously funny! With a blessing from the mysterious J.C. himself; biographies of the inhabitants of the Towers, extensive analyses of the protagonist's many neuroses; explanation and exploration of historical and other obscure references; a chapter on The Occult Fawlty Towers, and much, much, much more. The book closes with the hitherto missing 13th episode ruthlessly revealed. Be prepared for laughter! Add to this the congenial illustrations by the author in an exclusive edition, and you have within reach the ultimate, ultimate guide to these ever alluring, vertiginous towers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Intriguing read,
By
This review is from: "Fawlty Towers": A Worshipper's Companion (Paperback)
When I ordered this book I was so excited and couldn't wait to get my teeth into it.
I had read various reviews of it and as I'm a lover of Fawlty Towers (which I believe is the one and only comedy to have truly stood the test of time) and was eager to see Lars' take on it. What I got was a mixed bag. On the face of it, most of the content seems to be a work of fiction, whereby the author has speculated on the background story of all the characters along with an analytical study of what makes them tick. I have to admit that I found this part a bit on the boring side although there are some interesting gems within but they have to be sifted out. At the end of the day, this series was a pure comedy and to psychologically analyse the characters reasoning (which was done to death) is like trying to put Fawlty Towers in the real world - it just doesn't work! I like the artwork in the book, which I presume is the work of the author (I had read that there were complications which prevented real pictures from being used), but the finest part of the book has got to be this so called 13th episode. I'm still not 100% convinced of the so called legitimacy of this claim (it's one thing to say it exists as a script but quite another to say they went as far as filming it). If the blurb at the front really is the work of John Cleese, then we have to take it that maybe there is some truth in it, and this is the really intriguing part because whoever wrote it signed it as JC, so who knows? The script of this 13th episode itself is actually really funny but on comparing this to existing episodes, it could almost be argued that a clever writer has taken elements out of all of the other episodes and re-written them as a totally new script because there does not seem to be much in the way of anything new in it. The plot thickens! Overall, a very good read and some thought provoking material. I would definately recommend that any fan of Fawlty Towers invests in it.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A tongue in cheek look at Fawlty Towers,
By
This review is from: "Fawlty Towers": A Worshipper's Companion (Paperback)
This book actually sheds little light on the inside world of Fawlty Towers, given that the author has had no access to anybody that worked on the show. Instead, what he purports to do is read inbetween the lines, as it were, and supplement his imaginative meanderings with factual information that's freely available in the public domain. There's nothing wrong with that, it's possible to write a good biography on a subject without access to them and to write a bad one inspite of special priviledges.
However, ultimately for me this book is a bit of a let down. Let's cut to the chase and deal with the assertion that it contains the script of a 'lost' 13th episode. If it really did, you'd have to ask yourself why Cleese and Booth didn't sue for breech of copyright. Or why in the cast list the actors, besides the mainstays, are not infact known actors. Who are Ron Parsley, Clive York and Patty Masham? Google is conspiculously silent. Nor is it likely the BBC would have contracted and paid for a show of this calibre and then declined to broadcast it. But the clincher is simply the quality of the script. For a fan, it's not bad I suppose. Holm's game psychological knowledge of Basil results in passages that do seem convincing. Lines like "she could kill an impala within shooting range just by laughing at it". And he has a feel for his syntax generally, which is no mean feat, especially as the author is Swedish. That said, the characterisation is often ill-judged too, and repeated viewings of Fawlty Towers have not impressed upon Holm a feel for plot. Fawlty Towers is funny because so much happens in so little time, so many misunderstandings and the main characters all properly involved. This script, which I can hardly believe equals forty five minutes of tv, is almost a non-story. It reflects Holm and his particular leanings and what he gets out of Fawlty Towers more than it denotes a genuinely lost treasure. Obviously I'd like to be wrong because I'd love there to be a missing episode, even it isn't very good. But take heed of what it says on the back cover; "Only a true genius could make this believable." Holm's is right and he is no genius.
5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Towers: Dinner party special,
By Gilles Kennedy (Urshult, Kronobergland Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: "Fawlty Towers": A Worshipper's Companion (Paperback)
Scooping a London dinner party gasp of amazement was easy with this book of details, sordid and delicate, about the comi-tragedy it seems all mankind is obliged to quote. From the erotic to the arcane, the psychological to the profane, A Worshipper's Companion is, for once, advertising industry not included, exactly what it claims to be. You may know every line off by heart, the location of every piece of furniture on every set, but I defy you to attempt the intricacies of the 13th episode.
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